Fireworks

Fireworks on the Mall
Originally uploaded by jmsmall2005.

Happy Fourth Plus One. We took a break from our endless home improving/desperately trying to find the rice cooker and ventured out into the wild blue yonder. Okay, not so much "yonder" as down to the US Marine Corps Memorial (fondly known as Iwo Jima) to get a great view of the fireworks on the Mall. If you look really closely and use your imagination, you can see our view in the picture--Lincoln, Washington, and the Capitol all lined up. It was an ideal alternative to fighting the crowds and madness down on the Mall. The first summer we lived here we did the whole Capitol Steps thing, and it is something everyone should do...once.

We also put up a pretty little flag on our house. It is cute. Hee hee.

I love Fourth of July. When we got home from the Show, our neighbor kids were letting off their own fireworks in the driveway. Fireworks smell like the beach to me, which is where I spent the first 22 Independence Days of my life (minus the one where we all went to Disneyland). Fourth of July meant roasting hot dogs and s'mores, three-legged races on the beach, watching my cousins from Oregon blow their fingers off (slight exaggeration) with fireworks from Idaho, and remembering how blessed we are to live in this country. Someday I'd like to take Jason to the beach. But for now, this Fourth was just right.